The present invention relates to rotating electrical machines and more particularly to synchronous machines such as alternators for motor vehicles, traction engines or other machines.
Among the known machines, mention may be made of machines with excitation by windings mounted in the rotor, machines with excitation by magnets mounted in the rotor and machines with double excitation by both windings and magnets mounted in the rotor.
Such machines are especially described in Patent Application FR 97/03429 filed on Mar. 20, 1997 by the Applicant.
Although giving acceptable results, the known double-excitation machines are relatively bulky because of the presence of brushes and slip rings.